Suckers!

Attention Tomato Growers!  If you see leaves and/or stems protruding from the middle of two branches, such as those pictured above, remove them immediately.  They are draining energy away from the potentially delectable tomatoes you have your heart set on for later in the summer.  These suckers are roadblocks on the path to deliciousness: do not let them win!!!

Sharing the Wealth

With the passing of the solstice last week, there is a sense of spring tenderness transitioning to summer hardening in the plants.  We've been busy harvesting for the farmstand that's open in the garden Mondays and Wednesdays and also the Threefold Cafe, the Hungry Hollow Food Co-op, the Fellowship Community (which cares for the elderly), and a local food bank.  Since food banks are mainly stocked with non-perishable items like canned goods, it always pleases me when fresh vegetables can be made available to them.  Increasing access to locally grown produce as well as helping people grown their own is what inspired me to do this internship in the first place.  Right now there's enough chard in the garden to feed a village, so why not share it?

Highlights of the week included

Let's put Chapstick out of business!

• Helping to "split" a hive known as Feliciana that was filling up with larvae, comb, and honey due to a very productive colony.  In order to encourage further productivity, some of the frames of larvae and comb and nursemaid bees were transferred into an empty hive with the hope that they will start a new colony.  The queen bee was left behind in the original hive, so the transferred nursemaids will be forced to raise a new queen.  This reduces the possibility of Feliciana swarming, not that swarming is a bad thing, but this hive is located in a somewhat secluded place where a swarm would not typically be noticed and therefore, the colony could be lost to the woods.

• Learning how to make lip balm using beeswax and olive oil from my fun former fellow intern Kirstin McKeel (shown above), who finished her year at the Pfeiffer Center recently but fortunately will be around for the summer.  These items were packaged and offered for sale at a fundraiser last night along a with an herbal tea blend.
• Making 30+ pieces of origami to complement the bouquets of flowers decorating the tables at the aforementioned fundraiser.  Keeping with the garden theme, I folded some colorful dragonflies, frogs, and rabbits, but found that the latter are not as windproof due to the long ears.
• Waiting out a very heavy rainstorm in the greenhouse and getting a few trays of fennel fronds packed into the dehydrator in the process.  My fellow herb stewards and I have been trying to keep the dehydrator full, but continuous rain has interfered with our plans.  We're hoping for a drier week this week (pun intended).

Correction- When describing the fabulous bunch-of-grapes costume I wore in the 2010 DC Pride Parade, I neglected to mention that it was trifecta of designers who created it for me, one that included the delightful Angela Gaudette as well as Jane and Tamika.   

Relocation Update- I found a nice, newly renovated, 2-bedroom apartment on a quiet tree-lined street in a historic neighborhood in Albany last weekend.  It's walking distance to the hospital where Mike will be working and the rent is less than what we are paying in DC (not that that should surprise anyone).  Now we just need to get everything moved, including Zoe.  Stay tuned...

Here are some photos from the garden this morning:

Baby robins sleeping in one of the apple trees

Red and green cabbage drenched in sunshine

Bees love lavender

Bachelor button gets a visit from a flower bee

Parsnips gone to seed

In Between Days

The past two weeks...a blur...  Here are the highlights:

• An unexpected Memorial Day weekend visit from my sister Kerry and her old friend Dana consisted of a tour of the garden and a visit to the Dairy Queen

• Bringing in the hay with temperatures in the high 90's: the last time I sweat that much I was in full foil fencing gear getting trounced by my friend Nichole.  Despite the heat, it was fun to collect large piles of hay and spear them with your hayfork to lift them over your head before tossing them onto the hay wagon

• Riding on top of all that hay when it was time to take the wagon down to the barn
• Picking and eating strawberries that are still warm from the sun
• Learning how to do a somewhat complicated series of knots in order to train the tomato plants to grow upward on plastic twine
• Appointing myself "The Herb Steward" and taking on some of the responsibilities of drying herbs, flower petals, etc. for use in teas, salves, and other products later in the year
• Walking through the garden with my grocery list and harvesting the herbs and greens I needed for cooking

For extracurricular activities, I've taken a few day trips.  Mike's best childhood friend, Frank Massimo, his wife Amy, and their son Nick, live about 12 miles away in New Jersey.  They gave me an introductory lesson in sitting on a deck and enjoying tasty snacks on a beautiful afternoon, which was much appreciated.  My former Food & Friends co-worker Meg Coffman and her husband Aaron were in town for a wedding and lured me into Manhattan for a visit to the fascinatingly chaotic Eataly food hall followed by people-watching while eating lunch on a bench in Madison Square Park.  Meg shares my love of a good walk, so we explored The High Line, the former elevated railway along 10th Ave. that has been transformed into a wonderful public park.  Check it out if you are in NYC: www.thehighline.org/

Not everyone may be aware that Mike has accepted a position at the Veterans' Administration hospital in Albany, NY.  That's only about 2 and a half hours from where I am currently living.  There are many farms in what's referred to as the Capital District and the local food movement seems to be quite strong, so I'm hoping there will be opportunities for me when I finish the internship.  (Baking Fans- there's a bakery in Albany that offers a weekly bread share, like a CSA, from Nov. to April.  I'll be looking into that for sure.)  

This is not to say that I haven't been homesick, especially with so many new routines/ideas/personalities to adapt to.  I've tried to keep my long-held routine of cooking for most of the week on Sunday afternoon/evening and have found that this DC pattern is so strong I sometimes catch myself thinking I need to give Zoe her medication or ask my neighbors Betty & Rita for missing ingredients just as I would've done at home. 

This past weekend marked the first time since 2003 that haven't marched in the Pride parade as a representative of Food & Friends.  I knew it would've been difficult to top the bunch-of-grapes costume made of purple balloons (designed expressly for me by my talented former co-workers Jane Yamaykin and Tamika Hodnett) that I strutted in last year, but it would have been fun to try.  Perhaps something that the crowd wouldn't have tried to rip off of me, but then again...  ;-)

It's late and I've got compost to layer in the morning, so I have to stop for now.  Good night, all.